CEO Note: NBL26 pre-season

Dear 36ers Family

This week our coaches and players are back on the court, so I thought it was an opportune time to update you all on some of the key highlights of this off-season.

We entered the post-season period with a plan and a vision around how we wanted to set up our basketball program for NBL26. There was no doubt last season ended before we wanted it to, but we came away very aware of where we needed to improve.

To that end, our Head Coach Mike Wells and General Manager of Basketball Operations Matt Weston have set about building the support staff and playing roster that we believe is capable of winning Championships.

We’ve welcomed the league’s greatest ever import Bryce Cotton on a 3 year deal and completed our import quota with the exciting Montrezl Harrell and Zylan Cheatham. Around them we’ve brought in a host of new faces with NBL experience including Isaac White, Michael Harris, Flynn Cameron, and Matt Kenyon. We’re sure that along with the DJ Vasiljevic, Isaac Humphries, Keanu Rasmussen and Ben Griscti, we have a squad capable of beating any side in the NBL.

I would also like to thank our departing players for their contribution to our club and wish them well in the next part their respective journeys.

At the end of NBL25, Mike identified that he needed more NBL experience within his coaching staff so after a considered search, we’ve brought in Kerry Williams and Luke Cann, who have both have been in the NBL for many years. They’ll work alongside senior assistant coach Marko Marinovic, and development coaches Igor Cvjetkovic and Jakob Dorricott. I’d like to welcome Kerry and Luke and their families to the club. 

We’re also making some changes to our backroom staff in the lead up to the season. We’ll make some announcements around our reshaped Health and Performance team soon, as we approach the NBL Blitz and our participation in the exciting Pavlos Giannakopoulos Tournament where we’ll play European giants Panathinaikos and Partizan.

Off the court we’ve also had a busy off-season. While the club saw significant growth in NBL25 with several new benchmarks recorded across corporate, community engagement, membership and attendance, we aren’t resting on our laurels. We are now sold out of game access memberships – that’s more than 7,500 ticketed members, which is a record for our club and talks to the passion and loyalty of our supporters. I also want to thank our hardworking membership team who have attended to countless calls and emails in recent weeks.

Our corporate ticketing is already close to 90% sold and we’ve welcomed back several of our loyal and valued partners while having some new partners join the 36ers family. I would like to make special mention of Tyrepower and RAA which have each been part of our club for over ten years, Nippy’s which is entering its tenth season with us, and Comwire IT whose latest renewal will also take our partnership out to a decade together. We’ve recently also welcomed TAFE SA and Bleasdale Vineyards as partners and look forward to working together in NBL26 and beyond. We will have more partnership announcements as we approach the start of the season. 

On the community front, it was great to see so many smiling faces at our recent School Holiday clinics at Reynella and Wayville. Our clinics are great way for kids to learn basketball skills from our experienced coaches and players while having a lot of fun.

Our not-for-profit Shooting Hoops Foundation continues to make positive change in the community. We recently announced a new leadership program aimed at helping senior school students to manage change and develop a positive outlook for their life after school. The evidence-based program was created in partnership with leading social enterprise Be Well Co, part of the SAHMRI group. The Foundation also has other exciting new programs in the works. 

Finally, I should mention that a limited pool of individual gameday tickets for NBL26 will go on sale on or about Monday 18^th August. We will communicate with our members and supporters once a date is confirmed.

Thank you as always for your unwavering support.

Nic Barbato
Adelaide 36ers CEO